Publication Type: Individual PosterReview Method: Peer ReviewedAbstract: By the age of 6, most girls report a desire to be thinner (Dohnt & Tiggemann, 2004). Girls' drive for thinness may not only stem from direct pressures regarding thinness, but also from specific parenting behaviors. For instance, an authoritarian parent style has been associated with girls' negative body image (Haycraft & Blisset, 2010). In this study, we examined how a specific parenting behavior (warmth) was associated with adolescent girls’ drive for thinness. We hypothesized that parents who used a warm parenting style would be less likely to pressure their daughters to be thin, which would decrease girls' drive for thinness.
Participants were 134 adolescent girls in grades 7-12. Girls were primarily White (93%) and ranged in age from 12-19 years (M = 14.76). Adolescents completed self-report questionnaires before or after school. To assess adolescent perceptions of parental warmth, we used the 12-item Care subscale of the Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker et al., 1979); girls completed separate measures for mothers and fathers. To assess how much pressure to be thin girls perceived from their mothers and fathers, we used items adapted from the Perceived Sociocultural Pressure Scale (Stice et al., 1996). To measure girls’ drive for thinness, we used the 7-item Drive for Thinness subscale of the Eating Disorders Inventory (Garner et al., 1983).
Separate mediation analyses were conducted to assess the effect of overall parental warmth on girls’ drive for thinness, the effect of parental warmth when both parents had identical levels of warmth, and the effect of parental warmth when parents had differing levels of warmth (Table 1, Figure 1). Levels of warmth (high vs. average vs. low) were determined by examining quartiles. Using bivariate and multiple regressions, we first tested the direct effect of parental warmth on girls’ drive for thinness, followed by testing the mediating role of parental pressure to be thin (Baron & Kenny, 1986). We found that higher overall parental warmth was directly associated with lower drive for thinness among girls. Results also indicated that parental pressure to be thin fully mediated this relationship, such that higher warmth was associated with less pressure to be thin which, in turn, was associated with lower drive for thinness. However, when differing levels of parental warmth were examined, there was no longer a significant relationship between parental warmth and girls’ drive for thinness. Interestingly, when focusing on parents with identical levels of warmth, the effect of parental warmth remained significant, even when the mediating role of parental pressure was included.
Together, these results suggest that while overall parental warmth plays an active role in girls’ beliefs regarding thinness, the strength of that relationship is determined by the combination of maternal and paternal warmth. Specifically, the more similar the parents are in warmth, the more strongly warmth appears to impact girls’ drive for thinness. Our findings offer support for the need for both parents to maintain high levels of warmth, not just mothers as is often assumed, in order to protect girls against unhealthy body image concerns.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished ManuscriptAbstract: "Nong, Kumnit$^a$ \\Advisor: Daniel M. Andersons$^a$\\[14pt]
$^a$George Mason University\\Department of Mathematical Sciences\\4400 University Drive\\Fairfax, Virginia 22030\\United States\\We study the simulated models of the aqueous layer on the pre-corneal tear films of a human eye. These models describe the behavior of fluid films with and without the inclusion of the permeable porous medium that models a contact lens. A fluid dynamic model for the thin fluid film over thin porous layers is formulated by using a nonlinear fourth order partial differential equation with four boundary conditions and one initial condition. The evolution equations are solved numerically in Matlab in order to predict the effect of various parameters (at realistic values) on time of the thin films rupture. The results indicate that the presence of thin porous layers is a dominant effect and the different slip conditions at the liquid-lens boundary also have significant impact on thinning the thin aqueous layers. The computed numerical results allow us to predict film break up times for tear films on a contact lens. "

We study the simulated models of the aqueous layer on the pre-corneal tear films of a human eye. These models describe the behavior of fluid films with and without the inclusion of the permeable porous medium that models a contact lens. A fluid dynamic model for the thin fluid film over thin porous layers is formulated by using a nonlinear fourth order partial differential equation with four boundary conditions and one initial condition. The evolution equations are solved numerically in Matlab in order to predict the effect of various parameters (at realistic values) on time of the thin films rupture. The results indicate that the presence of thin porous layers is a dominant effect and the different slip conditions at the liquid-lens boundary also have significant impact on thinning the thin aqueous layers. The computed numerical results allow us to predict film break up times for tear films on a contact lens.\\

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished ManuscriptAbstract: Pluralistic ignorance on the norm of ideal thinness for women, third-person perceptions about the influence of thin idealized images in mass media, and the relationship between pluralistic ignorance and the third-person perception were examined. Both women and men overestimated thinness preferred by other women and men. Men in dating relationships overestimated thinness preferred by their female dating partners, while women in dating relationships had accurate estimations of their male dating partners norms of ideal thinness. Both women and men also overestimated the influence of the thin ideal on other women and men. However, third-person perceptions were not found in dating relationships. When the third-person perceptions about the media effect were tested, along with peoples own norms of ideal thinness, the two variables accounted for a significant amount of variance in biased perceptions about the norm of ideal thinness.